-Callia-

  I gave the men entering no time to clear the door. The unlucky few who made it into the room included only conscripted workers. It took less than a second for me to close in, denying them any space to maneuver. The only thing sparing them from being gutted was the faint hesitation in my heart. Did these men know they were helping demons? I couldn’t be certain regarding their guilt, but at the same time I was in no position to give mercy. By killing the archer, I eliminated the enemy's most threatening piece, but that move also trapped me in a castle with abundant fodder to pin me down. My brief reflection gave the man time to recoil, but he was helpless as I nicked his cheek. It wasn’t a mistake but a strategic decision to conserve the poison. I ignored the relief on his face as I booted him back into the doorway. The men behind him cried out as the whole group collapsed, tumbling into the stairwell.

  Using the disarray, I jumped over the conscripts and further down the stairs. I rammed through the door on the opposite side, entering a room with archery slits positioned facing the outside. I dash to the window and lower my senses, trying to blink outside. Immediately I recoiled as the metaphysical sense of running face-first into a door stunned me. Having confirmed my suspicion of a spatial lockdown, I reeled back to the door of the room. A shrill whistle rang out in alarm as I crushed the first man's face with my fist. His companions tried to stick me with their blades to no effect as I batted aside the weak resistance. With overwhelming force I evicted the remainder of the conscripts in the form of mincemeat. A quick peek into the stairs below has a pair of vault guards as well as a tide of conscripts just a few short steps away.

  Taking a step back from the door, I try summoning a boulder only to grimace as the lock denies me access. I jump back to the window and stab at the stonework with my knife. The castle's defensive runes don’t even flare to life as my aura-imbued knife fails to cut. I have only a moment to frown before the vault guard makes his way in. I charge him while he rushes me. My knife swipes cleanly through his throat while his sword slips past me with a narrow dodge. The man collapses forward choking, but his charge clears the door long enough for more vault guards to breach. A swordsman and a spearman face me. The swordsman rushes forward stabbing, and I try to slip past him for a similar strike to the man's neck, but abort my strike at the last moment as the spearman lunges to intercept. Using my backwards weaving as an opening, the swordsman tries to open my gut with a sweeping strike. A skin-deep cut blooms along my stomach. The man’s sweeping strike overextended his reach, giving me a chance to get in close. I shoulder-check the guard, sending him flying back into his companion. Neither has time to react as I bury my knife in the back of the swordsman's head while slapping the other with my mana strike. The swordsman slumps onto his companion, who is wailing as he collapses inward.

  The conscripts behind the vault guards piled into the room while I finished off the guards. Seeing the fallen bodies, the men hesitated, and I took the opportunity to shout at the shaken men.

  “Run!” For a moment it seems to work as the frontline recoils, but the evil presence surges into them. The whole group flails in agony, their skin blackening and eyes turning red. I don’t hesitate in the slightest diving forward and cutting the group to ribbons. A mix of black and red blood spraying everywhere I went. As I reached the stairwell, dozens more were nearly completely transformed. The pale human skin turned ink black with red eyes, no hair, and crowns of horns. The frontmost rushed me, trying to grab me. I kicked his torso in an upward slice; I felt his organs turn to mush, but he didn’t completely collapse like the man who I kicked a hole in earlier. I danced through the others as they flailed around trying to master their new strength. The conscripts behind them turned to flee, and I didn’t pursue. Instead, I moved back to the first transformed conscript and slapped him with a mana strike. The man started convulsing as his flesh turned from black back to a more human color, but then, just like the vault guards, he collapsed inward, leaving nothing but the material possessions.

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  The conscripts lacked the will to charge, but they still held their ground. I took the brief lull to think over my inability to hit the wall. A mage specialized in denying spatial transfer skills seemed far too specialized, but maybe it also acted as a means of reinforcing the castle as well? If that's the case, I have two options: find an opening big enough to escape the gate or kill the space mage. As I thought, I moved back and forth like a predator quietly putting pressure on the guards, who retreated step by step. If I chose the mage, I would need to fight both him and the captain of the guard, both of whom my gut told me were very real threats. The archer was the same, but I stole his every advantage while also ambushing him at point blank. However, if I hunted a window or door big enough to escape, I would definitely wear myself out fighting conscripts and vault guards. I paused as a realization hit me. Since I was locked inside the gate, that meant the defenders would be rushing to two locations: me and the exits. Which meant I didn’t need to search aimlessly.

  I shift my focus and let the sounds of the castle wash over me. The desperate patter of feet rushing to me but also towards another room three floors below. With my destination set, I leapt at the conscripts. Like a ballerina of death, I flowed through there, every strike before cutting, kicking, or punching each man. At the end of the first floor, a small river of blood accompanied me as I carved each inch of my path in the bodies of the fallen. Finally I saw the end of the piled-up conscripts. Slipping by the last few, I burst my way down the staircase. It only took several seconds to arrive at the room. I kicked open the door and carefully peeked in. Six vault guards piled into the room, four spears denying entry and two archers who immediately opened fire. However, behind the formation is the arch of a large window letting light pour in.

  I hop back, switching to my bow in an instant. I might not be able to refill arrows with the void blocked, but I did have twenty in my current quiver. I darted forward, slipping past the door while unloading a dozen arrows like a shotgun spraying every man in the room. I peek back into the room only to find the body of every vault guard slumped on the ground with arrows sticking out of their vitals. Wasting no time, I rushed for the window. Suddenly a premonition of danger flared, making me stomp into the ground, slowing myself just enough for a longsword to nick my throat. I scramble backward as the blade pursues me again and again. I escape with nicks and cuts. In my haste I recognize my enemy. The captain of the guard and the mage had teleported in right before I escaped. I snapped my attention back to the window, but my instincts warned me at the last second that the barrier was back. My distraction was enough for the knight to dash forward with a blurring blade. I brought up my knife, barely intercepting it as the force behind the blow bounced me back into the stairwell. I felt my skull and ribs crack from the impact but dismissed them, instead pushing myself back into a fighting position.

  He came at me again like a flash of light, his sword rushing forward with a brutal thrust that I managed to evade at the last second. In a display of perfect control, he stopped an inch from the castle wall and swept downward in pursuit. Instead of trying to move back, I dove in close, shielding myself from the blade with my dagger. My other hand darted forward while the impact of the sword hitting my knife knocked me aside like a loose leaf. My sword aura broke, and my blade cracked, but it just barely held. I bounced off the wall like a pinball, shattering my arm and shoulder, but despite my injuries, the captain didn’t get away untouched.

  The captain wailed and reeled backward, clutching the point of contact. He stumbled backwards, but I felt the evil of the vault rushing to his rescue. While he’s unbalanced, I ignore the cracking of my bones and rush forward. Again at the last second my sense blares with danger, and I abort the attack. All I see is a shimmer of displacement in front of me, like looking at an object half submerged. The captain certainly wasn’t helpless either, swinging widely with a blade I couldn’t escape, but he was too late. In the moment I aborted my attack, my eyes snapped over to the mage, but more importantly, the window behind him. In the gap while he attacked, I blinked.

  “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”